Tales of Romance, Valentine Style

...she arrives into NY from paris. a french skater friend of ours, Anton, met her on the plane and he is quite smitten, they're in the thows of a whirlwind romance that only two people from the same country can have in a foriegn country. we all go out to dinner after skating and end up at american trash, some bar up on the east side. i'm out front showing off for some hotties and eventually make it back inside, by now quite buzzed. she's sitting on a bar stool chatting with our group. i go up and ask, "so this is your first time here"?, "yes", she says, so i say "well, welcome to NY" and reach in and grab her crotch. could have heard a pin drop. anton's quite pissed, but she just laughs, and doesn't slap me. i get a little more buzzed and do it again. she doesn't hit me again, but anton's ready to pummel me. time to leave.

fast forward a couple of months. he's back in france and she's living here. i've seen her around a bit. my friend sean and i run into her down at the dance skaters area in central park(where the beer is sold for $2/can) she's lamenting that anton's gone and she has no boyfriend. i mention that she could be going out with either of us if she'd quit smoking cigarettes. two months later we're at the beginning of a three year relationship, that i really mess up badly...

😱 OMG. Where were you 17 years ago????? Oh, wait. You wouldn't like me. I smoke. But I do have other endearing qualities.

OK...I'm intrigued...keep going please.

I always say I picked him up in a parking lot. 😀

and it's true! 😀 :wub: :wub: :wub: love this story!

after my grandma died (my dad's mom), my papaw got in touch with his first love again, they ended up getting married and papaw was giddy as a school boy....he unfortunately didn't realize how bad his health was and he passed away after they were married 6-8 months, i can't remember which. i loved seeing him so happy at least for a short time...

way to go pawpaw! now, that's living...:wub:

Fuzz and me...I used to work at a local bank. When Fuzz moved down from North Walton, he started banking where I worked. I was in a long-term relationship at the time. Fuzz got a crush on one of my co-workers; dispatcher that was a friend of my family called me to see if I could set them up, but my coworker was a bimbo-slut and everybody, including my boyfriend, said Fuzz was a nice, quiet Christian guy. So, that didn't work out.

Fortunately, neither did my other relationship. I dated old friends here and there for a few months. Then, one day, Fuzz came in to deposit his check (when you only get paid once a month, you don't go to the bank much!) and, for the first time, I actually looked into his eyes. It hit me like a ton of bricks. 😱 I don't remember what I said or did, but evidently it was written all over my face. After he left, another co-worker (not the b-s) came over to me and whispered "you know, Steve is single..."

I gathered the courage to call my friend the dispatcher back...asked her to discreetly find out if he might be interested. She was about as discreet as a herd of elephants...but Fuzz called me that night.

That was 18 years ago; we've been married for 16...:wub:

SN, aren't you glad you got the courage up to make that call?

PV, that was a lovely story of your grandparents and I love the pics! :wub:

Yeah, I am. I debated just flirting with him, but since WCSO only pays their officers once a month, I figured that would take far too long!

I've been working on recounting another Valentine story which was told to me (both his and her versions) repeatedly while growing up. It is major long but might be of interest to local history buffs:

My mom first came to Point Washington in 1937. Her stepfather, Donald Cameron, was the captain of one of the dredgeboats that dug the Intracoastal Waterway. Pretty much everyone arrived in Point Washington via ferry at that time. My mom, my Aunt Jonnye, and their parents rented a room from W.H. & Katie Wesley. (This room later became the "blue bedroom" at Eden...but I digress...)

Mom started school in the one-room schoolhouse that used to be across from the cemetery. She had been born in Mississippi and had been drug all over the eastern U.S. with the dredge crew, but she had never been in such a place. She was in 11th grade and incensed that shorthand, typing, and the other business skills she had been learning in Michigan were not offered in Point Washington. My dad was in the 12th grade and later remarked that his first thought was "I wish than d@mn redhead would shut up!" :lol:

Slowly, though, Mom noticed that young Dickie Saltsman, who was the grand-nephew of her landlords, was paying quite a bit of attention to her. He would perform impressive feats for her, such as pretending to be able to tell if it was time for the ferry by smelling his armpits. 😱 He began walking her home after school, and often his mother would invite her family for supper. His sisters, Ollie Sue, Peggy, & Joanne would constantly embarrass Dickie by saying "Dickie & Loraine, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g" and anything else they could do to pick on him. He would just brush them off and look down at his plate.

Then the unthinkable happened...Mom's stepfather was being transferred to a job near Tampa. Sadly, they packed up and moved again. Mom had left boyfriends everywhere she lived, so this wasn't too new to her, but she really wished they could just settle down. Meanwhile, Dickie was heartbroken, and as this was before e-mail, telephones, etc, he was devastated that he would never see her again. After grappling with his feelings and his heartache for several weeks, he wrote a letter to her, telling her what she meant to him and that he would love her as long as he lived. He mailed it to her, in care of the dredge company, Tampa, Florida.

A couple of weeks after that, the dredge company decided it was time to begin preparing the 331 causeway in preparation for building the drawbridge across Choctawhatchee Bay. As he was familiar with the area, Daddy Don's crew was selected for the job. Dickie?s little sister, Joanne, was at her grandparents store at the end of 395 when Mom and her family stepped off the ferry. Dickie heard Joanne scream from end of the road ?LORAINE?S BACK!!!? However, being mortified that he had poured out his heart to her, Dickie?s response was to run into the woods and hide.

I do not know how long he stayed in the woods before Mom found him. Fortunately for me, they began dating in earnest. Mom?s family moved twice more, but the telegrams flew back and forth. Daddy Don was transferred to the Panama Canal Zone, and his sister in Tampa agreed that Mom and Jonnye could stay with her. My grandmother, Mama Mel, had married for the first time at 15 and later realized that was far too young, so she left Mom with stern instructions that she had better not get any ideas about getting married before she was 20 years old.

Mom turned 20 on May 6, 1941. She married Dickie Saltsman in the front yard of his mother?s house, which still stands on Hwy 395, on June 15, 1941. They were married 43 years before Daddy passed away in 1984. She joined him again in 1991, nine days after what would have been their 50th wedding anniversary (and, sadly, one day after my first wedding anniversary). They currently reside in Heaven; but I visit them in the Point Washington Cemetery?and also when I look out my front door to see the view they enjoyed for so many years.

If I get a scanner that works, I'll post their wedding picture -

Awwww!!!! Grayt story. :clap_1: Post pics!

:wub: I love all these stories. :wub:

Yeah, I am. I debated just flirting with him, but since WCSO only pays their officers once a month, I figured that would take far too long!

I've been working on recounting another Valentine story which was told to me (both his and her versions) repeatedly while growing up. It is major long but might be of interest to local history buffs:

My mom first came to Point Washington in 1937. Her stepfather, Donald Cameron, was the captain of one of the dredgeboats that dug the Intracoastal Waterway. Pretty much everyone arrived in Point Washington via ferry at that time. My mom, my Aunt Jonnye, and their parents rented a room from W.H. & Katie Wesley. (This room later became the "blue bedroom" at Eden...but I digress...)

Mom started school in the one-room schoolhouse that used to be across from the cemetery. She had been born in Mississippi and had been drug all over the eastern U.S. with the dredge crew, but she had never been in such a place. She was in 11th grade and incensed that shorthand, typing, and the other business skills she had been learning in Michigan were not offered in Point Washington. My dad was in the 12th grade and later remarked that his first thought was "I wish than d@mn redhead would shut up!" :lol:

Slowly, though, Mom noticed that young Dickie Saltsman, who was the grand-nephew of her landlords, was paying quite a bit of attention to her. He would perform impressive feats for her, such as pretending to be able to tell if it was time for the ferry by smelling his armpits. 😱 He began walking her home after school, and often his mother would invite her family for supper. His sisters, Ollie Sue, Peggy, & Joanne would constantly embarrass Dickie by saying "Dickie & Loraine, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g" and anything else they could do to pick on him. He would just brush them off and look down at his plate.

Then the unthinkable happened...Mom's stepfather was being transferred to a job near Tampa. Sadly, they packed up and moved again. Mom had left boyfriends everywhere she lived, so this wasn't too new to her, but she really wished they could just settle down. Meanwhile, Dickie was heartbroken, and as this was before e-mail, telephones, etc, he was devastated that he would never see her again. After grappling with his feelings and his heartache for several weeks, he wrote a letter to her, telling her what she meant to him and that he would love her as long as he lived. He mailed it to her, in care of the dredge company, Tampa, Florida.

A couple of weeks after that, the dredge company decided it was time to begin preparing the 331 causeway in preparation for building the drawbridge across Choctawhatchee Bay. As he was familiar with the area, Daddy Don's crew was selected for the job. Dickie?s little sister, Joanne, was at her grandparents store at the end of 395 when Mom and her family stepped off the ferry. Dickie heard Joanne scream from end of the road ?LORAINE?S BACK!!!? However, being mortified that he had poured out his heart to her, Dickie?s response was to run into the woods and hide.

I do not know how long he stayed in the woods before Mom found him. Fortunately for me, they began dating in earnest. Mom?s family moved twice more, but the telegrams flew back and forth. Daddy Don was transferred to the Panama Canal Zone, and his sister in Tampa agreed that Mom and Jonnye could stay with her. My grandmother, Mama Mel, had married for the first time at 15 and later realized that was far too young, so she left Mom with stern instructions that she had better not get any ideas about getting married before she was 20 years old.

Mom turned 20 on May 6, 1941. She married Dickie Saltsman in the front yard of his mother?s house, which still stands on Hwy 395, on June 15, 1941. They were married 43 years before Daddy passed away in 1984. She joined him again in 1991, nine days after what would have been their 50th wedding anniversary (and, sadly, one day after my first wedding anniversary). They currently reside in Heaven; but I visit them in the Point Washington Cemetery?and also when I look out my front door to see the view they enjoyed for so many years.

If I get a scanner that works, I'll post their wedding picture -

That would seriously make a great movie. I can feel the excitement of stepping off the ferry and then seeing the teenage bo, him not knowing you were coming back. Kind of how it was at Grayton every summer. Waiting for that boy to show up that you had the crush on the summer before, but only better. Think screen play!!

If it's not made into a movie, I bet Red Rocket could use it for Grit and Grace! Seriously, get a hold of him! What a wonderful story and enlightening history! Bless their hearts!

Y'all are going to have me in tears if you keep this up. Well except for John R - the crotch grabbing kind of lost me - LOL.

Oh, SN! What a wonderful story!!! :wub: :wub: :wub: And, what wonderful memories for you!